Useful polymeric products are obtained by polymerizing a norbornene and a tetracyclododecene with or without cyclopentadiene and/or other copolymerizable monomers. Such polymeric products can be either elastomeric or rigid plastics, depending on what reactants are employed and on formulation of such polymeric products.
Norbornene or an alkylnorbornene can be prepared in a known manner by reacting on olefin with cyclopentadiene. The reaction mixture is distilled to separate norbornene and high boilers, the latter being mostly trimers of cyclopentadiene. Tetracyclododecene, as well as alkyltetracyclododecene, can be prepared by reacting a norbornene and cyclopentadiene. The product of this reaction contains tetracyclododecene, unreacted norbornene, and high boilers along with a small portion of unreacted cyclopentadiene.